Protesters Voice Opposition To Big Wind Projects

About 200 people gathered Friday on the Statehouse lawn to protest against large-scale wind development.

About 200 people gathered on
the Statehouse lawn on Friday to voice their opposition to large-scale wind
projects.

A few of the protesters stood
out from the crowd. They were dressed in Revolutionary War garb and were there
because of a planned wind development on a ridgeline overlooking the Hubbardton
Battlefield site.

Jim Ross is from Middlebury,
and says that over the last 30 years he's taken part in re-enactments at the
battlefield.

"And we're here to support
any efforts to protect Hubbardton Battlefield, and the ridge that overlooks it,"
he says. "Pittsford Ridge was the actual place that in 1777 the Battle of
Hubbardton took place. Although I'm very much in favor of alternative energy,
I'm not in favor of putting windmills over one of Vermont's most prestigious Revolutionary War sites."

Charles Johnson from East Montpelier was also in the crowd. He's a former state
naturalist, and is concerned about the environmental impacts of building roads
and placing wind turbines in fragile mountain ecosystems.

"We're very unsure of effects
on wildlife, on bird populations, migrating birds, on bats, which are already
in trouble," Johnson says. "We don't know the full effects of all the heavy
construction on watersheds, segmenting forested habitat the way we're doing it.
There are a lot of unknowns. It's time to slow down and take another look and
really assess this."

The demonstrators prepared a
symbolic "certificate of public harm" to give to the Vermont Public Service
Board which has issued permits for wind projects in Sheffield, Lowell, Georgia
and Deerfield.